It is apparently possible to recruit companions who will fight by your side, carry out simple tasks, and so forth. I have managed to acquire one in the very first village, but have thus far not had him travel with me because I don't know how sturdy he'll be in combat.

Do companions die permanently, like most NPCs? Or do they become incapacitated/unconscious like vital questgivers? Die but can be picked up again from their original location later?

8 Answers
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If their health is exhausted due to enemy fire, they just get knocked out. Healing them or finishing combat and allowing them to regenerate will bring them back to life.

If you kill them due to friendly fire, that's it: they're dead permanently.

But there are situations that may cause a follower to die permanently, even after they enter the "knocked out"/"cower" state: if an enemy keeps wailing on them, there's a chance they'll die permanently.

When your follower would die to an enemy attack or a trap, they will be incapacitated for some time and begin to recover their health, just like essential NPCs; enemies will stop attacking or targeting them during this time. However, if they lose all their health again during this period, they will die for good. Thus, you should try to move the fight away from them, so that they are not hit by a stray arrow or area-effect spell. They can also die if hit with a damage-over-time poison that is stronger than their health recovery. They can also die from enemy power-attacks.

Only partially true. Companions can die to some (possibly important, or high level) NPC's. My stray dog died to regular enemies, Faendral (or whatever his name is) died to a bandit boss.
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Mr SmoothNov 13 '11 at 1:26

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@MrSmooth Yeah, I don't know what's intended. Looking around online, I've found a bunch of people saying their companions permanently die easily, even to enemy fire, and others who swear nothing kills them. Seems like follower death is buggy to say the least.
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user3389Nov 13 '11 at 2:06

What I'm thinking is that certain companions can die very easily (like a stray dog) while others (story characters) can only die while battling other story characters.
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Mr SmoothNov 13 '11 at 2:39

I had one of the ceiling axes in the Gold Hand mission tragically kill my companion and push him through the wall; after getting killed myself the companion was gone. So, it is indeed kind of buggy...
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Tom WijsmanNov 13 '11 at 5:03

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I hate how I can't use Fire Ball with Lydia around...
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Ivo FlipseDec 27 '11 at 8:48

They don't generally rush ahead, they attack if you attack or you are attacked. They won't do anything if you're not in combat. They will even sneak when you sneak. You can also command them to "wait" if you want to go it alone on a certain part.

They have a "second chance" of sorts - when they are about to die they fall to the ground and recover, just like important NPCs. The mobs will switch their attention to you. If the mobs go back to the follower after that, he will die tho.

It is the same concept as in Fallout: New Vegas - companions work in the same way (Bethesda being involved with both games).

Normally a follower (a stray dog is an exception) will permanently die due to friendly fire or to an enemy with an exceedingly high level like a dragon or constant enemy fire. For those rare cases where followers die instantly without even healing the cause is unknown. Possible reasons include having previously hitting your follower, which in some way make it count as friendly fire. Suggestion is to leave followers out of situations you know they cannot handle.

Yes. Typically they'll just get knocked out, but when I was fighting against the Snow Troll and it could 2 hit me... my NPC got knocked out over and over. Eventually I found them dead as I was running around.

To add to the current answers, if you have the Dragonborn DLC, doing the quest, The Winds of Change will allow you to have the Companion's Insight ability. It is described as "your attacks, shouts, and destruction spells do no damage to your followers when in combat". This prevents friendly fire from the player character to followers, preventing the player character from killing followers.

If playing on the PC, installing the UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul mod allows you to set a follower as 'essential' through a dialog option, preventing them from dying at all.